From Where Do We See? Opening Up The Black Box of Biomedical Imaging

Inside the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner the patient lies still, her vision impaired by the required physical posture. She can move only her eyes and, because of her fixed horizontal position, the only things she can see are the roof of the scanner and its walls. The technical procedure does not allow
subjects to access their own MRI images; these appear on a computer screen in a separate room where the radiologist and the physician monitor the examination. The first things the patient experiences inside the scanner are the sound of the machine and the voices of the radiologist and the physician. No images. No eye
contact. Exchanges are mediated by voices through headphones and eventually drowned out by the alien-like whir of the machine. This intense acoustic experience saturates the space inside the
scanner with reverberations and vibrations.